Tips for keeping spiritual resolutions

Your prayer life gets better when you  connect others to God and  others. PHOTO/NET.

What you need to know:

  • According to St. Pope John Paul II, “solidarity is not “a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of others. It is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good.”

Every January, millions of people begin their year with New Year’s resolutions. Losing weight, getting organised, exercising more, eating healthier, and managing finances better are some of the most common resolutions. But what about making spiritual New Year resolutions? 

The problem is not making a New Year’s resolution; the problem is your resistance to take steps that will help you keep your New Year’s Resolution.

Understand that you cannot. But God can.

We tend to base our ability to successfully make changes on our willpower. That does not represent the Christian life. The Christian life is, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). However, dead people don’t have a lot of power.

Making positive changes in our lives honours God. Seeking to make those changes in our own power dishonors God. He tells us, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” (Zechariah 4:6). Your strategy for keeping your resolution needs to be total dependence on God, accessing his power through prayer.
Give your life to god’s will.

The most important question about our New Year’s Resolutions is why. Sometimes we pray, asking God to help us make a change we want to make. We do not understand why our prayers go unanswered. God tells us, “When you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong. You only want what pleases you.” (James 4:3).

A Christian is someone who has decided to live in a way that, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Whether we resolve to eat more vegetables, drink more water, or whatever it is, we seek it for God’s glory.
Take responsibility for your past.

Working with lots of people who want to make lots of changes, I find a recurring theme: What is keeping them from the way they want to live in the future is the way they have lived in the past. In my life, for years I tried to have less anger and more patience. I could never do it until I genuinely dealt with what was causing it.

Whatever it is you are doing that you do not want to do, or not doing that you want to do, why? Why do you overeat or exercise too little, smoke or look at porn, yell at your children or have bitterness towards your parent? To change, you need to ask God to help you own and release your past.
Forgive and ask to be forgiven.

When we start thinking about the past, we often discover an issue of unforgiveness. It could be guilt about our actions or cynicism about someone else’s sin that is keeping us stuck. We don’t realise how guilt and resentment can stain our lives and infect everything.

May I encourage you? If you have guilt over your transgressions or bitterness about sin committed against you, make forgiveness your top priority. Receiving forgiveness, or giving forgiveness will help you in every other area of your life.
Connected to God and others.

I think it is wise to include God and a few close friends in deciding what New Year’s resolutions you need to make. It is also necessary to involve God and a few close friends with keeping those resolutions.
Your strategy for faithfully living out the new you is connection. How will you stay connected to God on a daily basis? What is your plan for accessing his power? Who are the friends you will ask to pray for you and hold you accountable?

Help others connect to god.
There is a saying in the recovery movement, “There is no healing without helping.” There can be something selfish about seeking to get unstuck when our focus is just on us. 
When we focus on others, it can have a surprisingly positive impact on us. So, what if, instead of seeking to keep your New Year resolution, you decide to help others keep theirs?
- cityonahill.com